Melissa Villa-Nicholas

Melissa Villa-Nicholas

Biography

Dr. Melissa Villa-Nicholas is an Assistant Professor in the Graduate School of Library and Information Studies. Her research interests include the history of Latina/os with information technologies and information spaces, Latina/o socio-techno practices, new media studies, and race/class/gender technology studies. Melissa teaches LIS students on inclusion, race and racism, intersectionality, and use and users of information.

Research

Information behavior, Latina/o information and technology histories and practices, social constructions of technology

Education

  • Ph.D., Library and Information Science, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2016
  • M.A., Library and Information Science, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 2012
  • M.A., Cultural Studies, Latino/a Studies, Claremont Graduate University (CA), 2010
  • B.A., Global Studies and American Literature, Azusa Pacific University (CA), 2005

Selected Publications

 

Data Borders: How Silicon Valley is Building an Industry around Immigrant Data. (2023). University of California Press.

Latinas On the Line: Invisible Labor in Telecommunications. (2022). Rutgers Press.Villa-Nicholas, M. (2022). Latinas on the Line: Invisible Information Workers in Telecommunications. Rutgers Press

Sweeney, M. & Villa-Nicholas, M. (2022). “Digitizing the ‘Ideal’ Latina Information Worker.” American Quarterly.

Villa-Nicholas, M. (2019) “Latinx Digital Memory: Identity Making in Real Time.” Social Media and Society.

Velez, L. and Villa-Nicholas, M. (Spring 2017). “Mapping Race and Racism in U.S. Library History Literature, 1997-2015.” Library Trends. 65.4

Villa-Nicholas, M. (Spring 2017). “Ruptures in Telecommunications: Latina and Latino Information Workers in Southern California.” Aztlán: A Journal of Chicano Studies.

Villa-Nicholas, M. (Fall 2015) “Latina/o Librarian Technological Engagements: REFORMA in the Digital Age.” Latino Studies. 13.4.

Download Curriculum Vitae (PDF)